May 14th and 15th saw the 2011 Japan Nationals come and go, in Osaka, Japan. Once again, the REWIND staff was in attendance again, as proud sponsors, volunteers, and performers. This year saw a record number of sponsors, which led to a record-breaking banner!


The event was held at the same venue as two years ago (Photo credit: K-Taro)


The judge shirts got a refresh, this year the judges got to sport polo shirts. Jun judged the 1A, 2A and team-play divisions.


The first day we had an award ceremony for the team play division. 1st place was Team Yo-Yo Damacy (Soul), 2nd was Team B-Grade (how fitting!), and 3rd place was Team AXEL. We'd like to see more team play in future events!


YoYoJoker had a booth at the event, selling the new Luminous, Strider, DoubleJoker LF and Custom Yo-Yo Bag.


yoyorecreation's booth carried just the former Sleipnir and Blink models, and prominently displayed team player's photos. The images were auctioned off, and even Hiro won one of the posters!


We plan to put these up at our new store in Osu Kannon!


If you're looking to buy a yo-yo... these guys might be able to help.


1A Division: Tatsuya Fujisaka grabbed first, using his signature Blink.
2A Divison: Ryo Yamashita claimed his first championship, having already taken 2nd at worlds
3A Division: Current world champion, Minato Furuta
4A Division: Kazuaki Sugimura set the stage on fire with multiple high-risk moves, not missing once!
5A Division: Takeshi Matsuura won a special award from the judges, but 1st place was taken by Takuma Inoue.

With the exception of 4A, all of this year's champions won their first JN titles. More detailed results can be found at the JYYF website: http://www.jyyf.org/2011jn/

Our friend Yama18yoyo has uploaded the freestyle videos to his youtube channel, be sure to check them all out! You'd better not miss these! http://www.youtube.com/yama18yoyo



A bit of a digression from Jun: "I have to say that the current state of the Yo-Yo world is due to the contribution and hard work of its members. With this in mind, REWIND's staff has worked hard to help the contest scene through sponsorship and volunteer work. Yo-yo is a skill that sits astride a fine line between toy and sport, which is probably why so many of us have enjoyed it for so long. JN is the biggest contest in Japan, and its players bring the heat. JN reminds me of the Olympics, with all the drama and passion that happens at the contest, there's little doubt that yo-yo is a true sport. We're happy to provide you athletes with the best service and products you could ask for as yo-yo players."

And just like that, the 2nd day came and went, and the 2011 JN came to a close. Thanks to all the players, supporters, volunteers, Judges, and JYYF members who made it all possible. Now, we all turn towards the upcoming 2011 World Championships this summer. To our JN Champions, we're all cheering for you!


PS: We've finished our Japan Earthquake relief promotions, and have submitted our donation to the Japan Red Cross. The earthquake and Tsunami were two months ago, but they still need help. We're happy to make our donations, and with your help, we've raised 91,500 yen (over 1,000 USD) for the cause. A huge thanks to everyone who bought our promotional items, it feels good to make a difference doesn't it?

The other week, the boys went to their second West Japan Yo-Yo Contest (WJ) as representatives of REWIND.


They assembled in the morning at the meeting hall, the site of previous WJ contests.


5 year old Shousuke. Including last year, he's the youngest freestyle competitor. His older brother, Keigo will represent WHF Osaka as the regional champion.


I-Tam (Kenichi Iida), Yasushi and Boys. Including Jun, this year's WJ judges.


JYYF's Futapapa-san served as the WJ's host.


No less than 4 cameras were used to record the freestyles simultaneously. Good work to our camera operators!


Our two Emcees, Marron and Fuumi!


Aichi's young player, Izuru Hasumi and Judge I-Tam.


Kazuki Okada and Hidemasa Semba during sound check


The meeting hall was much more crowded than in previous years, a good sign for future contests!


Duncan Crew's Sen-chan and WOODZ of Shaqler and Team YoYoFactory. Not often seen in the same photo!


The young hope of Okayama, 18 year old Shinnosuke Miyamoto.


Island! The kids from Osaka are lookin sharp!


The scene of the qualifier round announcements. Every time the players are very nervous, praying to move onto the finals.


Naoya Takeuchi swept the 5A division with his well-choreographed freestyle.


Kazuaki Sugimura took the 4A trophy.


Ryota Ogi once again blew us away with his complicated 3A tricks.


Flanked by seasoned THP-J veterans, Ryo Yamashita defeated them to take another title in the 2A division.


3A Champ Ogi-san also took the 1A with a fierce freestyle!


Special judge's award went to Takeshi Maruyama. Ignoring trends, Takeshi has stuck to his own unique style of play, earning him special distinction from the judges this year. His trick choices and freestyles are just downright cool.

Ogi-san also took the Extreme Trick award, with an amazingly difficult combo during his 3A freestyle. It was as if he was solving an intricate puzzle, very cool!

Good work everyone, see you at the next comp!

>> 4 yoyos in 2 hands

This is a trick video by Hiroki Miyamoto, introducing at yoyonews.jp

He plays 3A trick with 4 yoyos.

The yoyo is his signature model Stragazer (yoyorecreation).

Hiroki Miyamoto is the 2008 world 3A champion.

Must see the following video!

>> 2008 World Yo-Yo Contest 3A 1st Hiroki Miyamoto

-Jun

2011 CJ Report It's a bit late, but a couple weeks ago the guys held the Central Japan Yo-Yo Contest, this year in Iwakura, just a few blocks away from REWIND's headquarters! It was held in the same building that usually houses the Iwakura yo-yo practice group that Hiro, Jun and Shinya started once the store got off the ground. Thanks to the efforts of the volunteer staff and guests, this year's CJ had a much bigger turnout than before!



As a whole, the performances were super impressive, 1A in particular. It looks like Hiroyuki is aiming for the next Worlds. Tatsuya Fujisawa took 2nd place, and also was amazing on stage. 2A was claimed by Shu Takada, with his incredible stability. 3A champ Minato Furuta must be aiming for championship of the universe, haha. 4A was taken by Kunihiro Kawabe, who is used to performing for a crowd. Our very own Pon-sama took 5A with a freestyle unlike any of his previous performances. You can find more info at the YoYoFactory News and the full results at the JYYF site. Congratulations to everyone!


Jun and these three guys were the judges. Thanks for your work guys!




This little guy deserves a special mention; young Ijiru Hasami has only been yo-yoing for a year, and got 8th place in the crowded 1A division. 7th place was the cut off for finals, so he just narrowly missed making the cut, but at this rate, we hope to see him practicing for the Japan Nationals in May!

Not just Ijiru, but many new yo-yoers tried their hand at the freestyle competition. The young kids are really coming up strong on the heels of the veterans. Not just Iwakura practice club members, but members of groups from all over the region showed up and put on a good show. The judges focus solely on the tricks when they're working, so they couldn't be swayed by the cuteness of these young players. First timers and world champions get judged the same. Everyone clearly did their best, and we're looking forward to seeing them in future competitions.

Lastly, a big thanks to all those who helped put the event on; our withdrawl from the hall was miraculously fast. Good work everyone!

2010 44CLASH Report 5 Finally came the Battle Tournament & Showcase3, presented by KIKS TYO, an expedition tournament put on with help from the apparel brand.

16 top players (chosen beforehand) were lined up and set against each other in a head-to-head challenge, like a rap freestyle battle. These are the names that made it to the list:

• Futoshi Maruyama
• Hidemasa Semba
• Hiro Irifune
• Jensen Kimmitt
• Kenji Eto
• Kentaro Mannen
• Koichiro Ueta
• Rei Iwakura
• Ryota Ogi
• Shinya Kido
• Sojun Miyamura
• TAKA
• Tatsuya Fujisaka
• Tyler Severance
• Yasushi Furukawa
• And Secret Guest

So, who could that secret guest be?

The players gathered on the stage...


And the secret guest was none other than Nakamura Meijin! He came onstage in an emerald THP polo shirt. A wave of nostalgia hit the crowd!


First up was Nakamura vs. Rei Iwakura. Nakamura wove so many tricks together, from spider baby to the latest complicated tricks. Rei used all sorts of props for his performance, showing the level of thought and preparation he puts into his work.


Last year's winner, Kenji Eto, is rumored to seclude himself in the mountains to practice. His trick style is very unique, but he was up against Futoshi Maruyama, who put down his off string yo-yo to pick up some 1A lately.


Sojun vs. Tyler was like a beat-em-up movie.


Shinya put on a good show, but lost to Ryota Ogi.


TATSUYA vs ROAN!!


Jensen Kimmitt went up against Yo-Yo Master TAKA


Yasushi and Koichiro went head-to-head in a 2A battle


Since Rei, the MC for the contest, was busy participating in the battle, Jun took over the mic for him.


Jensen and Yasushi went head to head, for a world champion battle! Jensen threw 2A while Yasushi did 1A, heh.

Jensen ended up taking the whole thing, throwing down all his special movies for the title. Here's the final board:


Right after the Tournament came the final Showcase. Rei came on stage with a cellphone to his ear, and the crowd went wild.


The lights went out and he performed a killer yo-yo and juggling routine in the dark.


Amidst the excitement of the final performance, Iwada and Dee brought this year's 44CLASH to a close. Good work everybody!!

MCing the event were Rei, Pat and Dee.


Showcase 1 started off with John Ando taking the stage with a cellphone to his ear... which could only mean...


SHAQLER! Their famous performance from the World Contest made another special appearance at CLASH, to a warm welcome from the crowd.


After the performances, the seed players were gathered on stage. There was quite a crowd, but they are all world-class!


The guys were busy manning the booth, so they didn't get much footage of the actual event, but the crowd was packed in tight and going wild! It was another spectacular turnout for 44CLASH!

And the results are...

1A Division

1: Hiroyuki Suzuki
2: Christopher Chia
3: Takahiro Iizuka

2A Division

1: Shu Takada
2: Grant Jonson
3: Ryusei Saito

X Division

1: Tsubasa Onishi
2: Takeshi Matsuura
3: Sean Perez

Battle Tournament

1: Jensen Kimmitt

(from the 44CLASH Official page)

Mickey took 1st in 1A, despite being in poor health. He went to get checked out after the competition, and got hospitalized for pneumonia! We hope he recovers quickly. Singapore's champ Christopher Chia took 2nd, followed up by Iizuka, who exploded on stage with difficult moves.

2A was taken by Shu Takada, who had recently claimed 2nd at the Japan Nationals and 3rd at Worlds, and got scouted by Team YoYoFactory. Grant Johnson, who won the US Nationals just a month ago, took 2nd, and Ryusei Saito snagged 3rd with a memorable outfit and a solid performance after a long hiatus from the contest scene.

Mister X himself, Tsubasa Onishi took the X division. Last year's champ, Takeshi Matsuura still amazed the crowd and brought home the silver. Filipino champ, Sean Perez took third with a high energy performance.

Last year's CLASH winner and current 1A reigning champ, Jensen Kimmitt won this year's battle tournament.

As a gold sponsor, REWIND had permission to film and publicize the performances so we have a DVD here at the office. We were going to publish our videos to youtube, but couldn't get the go-ahead from the event, so we apologize to those of you out there who are hungry for CLASH footage!

To be continued...

This year is REWIND's first 44CLASH, and we were a gold sponsor this year, with our own sales booth. The booth was in a room separate from the performance stage, where we spent a majority of our time. From fresh faces to ones we hadn't seen in years, it was great to meet everyone at our booth. We had a little something from each maker. The Hyper Yo-Yo StormTigers were surprisingly popular!


Paul Yath's Crucial booth was next to ours, offering discounts to those who could best him at Ro-Sham-Bo!


On our other side was yoyorecreation's booth, serving up some of Japan's finest yo-yos.


44CLASH had their own booth, selling not only limited edition yo-yos but also accessories and apparel.


YoYoJam's booth featured special edition Phenoms, and their new ReXtreme and Unleashed.

Duncan's booth was manned by Crew leader MAYA, whom we rarely get a chance to meet up with! After the contest, we will be carrying their 44CLASH Special Edition Raptors.


American 3A top players, Paul and Hank were tearing up the practice area. Solid stuff!


Team Shaqler's KURI and Duncan Crew's Terry!


Singaporean player Iskander Shah. He has a really cool, distinct counterweight style. Formerly on Team YoYoJam, we hear he's currently sponsored by Adegle.


DUNCAN Crew!!!! DJ Kohta spent all day in the DJ booth so he couldn't make it in the photo. Thanks for all your hard work, Kohta!

So many more people came out that we forgot to get photos with. Big thanks to everyone for coming to visit our booth!

to be continued...

This year marked the 3rd CLASH, arguably one of the coolest yo-yo contests held. Of course, REWIND was there to participate in all forms, including being a gold sponsor of the event.



The guys piled into the REWIND mobile early in the morning to get to the preliminaries. The halls were choked with top players from around the world; the likes of Ishkander, FajarJun competed in the 1A prelims and didn't make it through, but was satisfied with his performance. The level was exceptionally high considering the proper contest hadn't started yet. He didn't even dip too deep into his new bag of tricks, so he can save them to bring them out on a later day.

After prelims and dinner, Jun went to the official CLASH hotel for the first Japanese 3A Throwdown. The throwdown has its roots in the states, started by father of 3A, Mark McBride in 2001. The unofficial contest is held late at night following the US Nationals, and has become an annual tradition in Chico. Here's footage from the first one:

>>2001 3A Throwdown


>>2010 3A Throwdown


The theme/challenge changes every year, and the trophy duck is brought back each year by the reigning champ to pass on to the new one. It's so much fun that the boys decided to bring the contest over to Japan, with a giant rubber ducky as the new trophy. They picked the theme and got together at the CLASH hotel. This year's theme was to balance the duck on your head as you start the trick. After a full night out, it was harder than it sounded!

Everyone participated


Some did pretty well


Some didn't fare so well


And the winner was.... drumroll please

Jun! He got to take home the first rubber ducky. He'd participated in the American throwdown in the past, and although it's just for fun, he was really pleased to take home the duck. Some front and back shots:




After all the excitement, Jun caught the last train back to his parent's place in Tokyo. He didn't have a bag for the duck, so he just carried it in his arms. It's an unusual thing to be carrying around on the train, so he was rather embarrassed, but amused.

The next day, he carried the duck back to the contest. One of the moms who had come to the contest told him "I have a friend who told me they saw someone walking through Tokyo station with a giant rubber ducky!" He was Spotted!

More to come...

On Sunday, The guys managed to drag themselves out of bed and get to the 2nd Yo-Style Kyusyu Contest. They were surprised to see a lot of parents playing alongside their kids, and got to catch up with a ton of old friends. Team YoYoFactory's Yuji Shimokawa Kelly (UK Champion) was also there.


The organizer and MC, Mr. Kobayashi (Kobacchi), our big brother in Kyushu


1A Finalists. The winner came the furthest distance (Hokkaido), Kentaro Mannen. Actually, this year the 1A top 5 were dominated by Team yoyorecreation. Owner Kengo Kido claimed 2nd place. Masakazu Yamazaki dominated the 2A division, and Hideo Ishida won the X division (sorry, no photos!)

For more detailed results, check out the Yo-Style website.


Mickey (Hiroyuki Suzuki) put on a special performance, giving us an idea of how hard he practices. He often comes to Fukuoka to perform, and was a big favorite amongst the kids.


There was also a long sleeper contest, won by Issei Suzuki (no relation to Mickey that we know of). His prize was an X-Convict.


Our judges, from left to right: Jun Aramaki, Kenichi Iida, Hiroyuki Suzuki, Kunihisa Kawabe, Hiroring. Big thanks to My-tho-logy for providing some T-shirts!


Here's a rare shot, can you tell the common theme? Shop managers for throw device (Kengo Kido), REWIND (Jun Aramaki), Shumi de Hajimeta yo-yo (Mr. Marushima) and Yo-Yo Island (Kenichi Iida).


Finally, a big thanks to our host and MC, Mr. Kobayashi! If it weren't for him, there wouldn't be a Yo-Style!

This weekend, the boys went to Kyushu's Fukuoka prefecture to participate in (Shinya), judge (Jun) and watch (Hiro) the 2nd Annual Yo-Style Kyusyu Contest. REWIND was there in full support of the contest, sponsoring as well as lending a hand at the judges' table.

The contest was on Sunday, but they arrived a day early to do some sightseeing and attend the player's gathering that night.

They took the bullet train from Nagoya to Hakata station. It'd been over a year since Jun had last been here; their renovations had been completed and the station looked better than ever.


Fukuoka Tower


Hakata bay. From this vantage point we could see the typhoon that was rolling in. Fortunately, Saturday was only partially cloudy.


Yahoo Dome, though we always thought it was just "Fukuoka Dome."


The Hawks' biggest fan and head cheerleader, "Otousan" (father) was there under glass.

~~~~~
Since the contest was held on Sunday, people traveling long distance would have to leave immediately after the competition, so instead of having an after-party, they had had a big group dinner beforehand.


The contest organizer has a history with the judges and contestants that stretches back over ten years! Everyone had a great time.